Authors: Faleena Hopkins
Then, without warning, he slumped in his chair. “God, I’m
so tired,” he said, confused and fearful. “I feel drugged. I can’t keep my eyes
open. What’s happening to me?”
“Dawn is coming.
Your body is shutting down.
It’s okay
,
you’re safe
. I’ve got you. We’re here.”
They got out of the car and he fell to
the ground, as though he’d gained two hundred pounds and could no longer hold
himself up.
“Let me help you,” she
held out her hand.
“Why aren’t you tired?” he asked, struggling to stand on
legs that couldn’t hold him.
“The older you get the more night you have,” she answered
with her hand still out.
“No. I can do it.” He tried to stand but he passed out
mid-air and collapsed back onto the ground. She slapped his face gently a few
times until his eyes strained to open.
“Adrian, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m going to
walk you in.
If you feel funny, or
like you’re being lifted and dragged at the same time, that’s me, okay?”
He could only nod.
She pretended to support him, not carry him, as he walked
into the building, but in truth -
all the walking was done by
her
. The feeling was familiar, but she didn’t know why. Inside the
elevator she lifted him into her arms. She alone lived on the second floor, so
she banked on the probability of finding no one walking through her hallway.
Julian sprang to mind. “Please be asleep,
Julian.
Please be asleep,” she
said, looking at the fledgling vampire sleeping in her arms. How would she be
able explain this to Julian? She thought of Elizabeth and was certain she would
have left after being rejected so. For once, she was glad in the knowledge that
Elizabeth had probably sought comfort in another girl’s arms.
Probably hooked up with some pretty
human in a bar, she thought. She looked at Adrian and chuckled at the irony of
having harshly judged that behavior in the past.
The elevator door whooshed opened, and she hesitated. She
looked down the hall, finding no one there. They were alone. She carried him
with ease and speed into her home. The sun rose, but it could not find them as
they lay together safely locked away.
She had never seen anyone fall into the death sleep
before. Elizabeth always fell after her and woke before. She looked at him and
saw such peace on his face, a slight smile fixed on his lips.
She wanted to stay awake and watch him
but she didn’t have a choice, she knew, so kissed him, lay down her head,
closed her eyes and joined him in unconsciousness, against her will.
2012
The next night her eyes opened and she lay a moment
before remembering what she’d done. If she turned her head and he wasn’t there,
she’d know it was a dream.
She
waited, and when she couldn’t wait anymore, she turned.
He was there.
His skin looked younger, unblemished, all evidence of alcohol abuse
gone. He had not moved in the death sleep and the small smile still held.
She rose up, leaned on her elbow and
looked at him with love as she waited. His eyelashes were thicker and his hair
was shiny and sleek, the long length reminding her of the men of her time. She
touched it, running her fingers through the strands. He looked like an angel,
she thought.
She kissed him. He
would wake up an hour after her, she knew, but she didn’t mind waiting. She
cuddled against him and let her mind and body rest. The depression was gone.
She was at peace.
When he awoke his eyes opened fast and he shot up with a
start and blurted, “Where am I?”
He
turned and looked at her as she gave him the dignity of remembering in his own
time. “Oh…” he said and smiled at her.
She smiled back.
He looked
around. “So you don’t sleep in a coffin.”
She laughed and shook her head no. “I’m not into the
morbid, no.
But this room holds a
similar concept and meets similar requirements.
No sun.
Hidden.
Only used during the day.”
“Right.”
He
looked around.
“No table?”
“For a glass of water and lip balm?” she teased.
“Or a book,” he added, pointedly.
She shrugged. “I don’t spend time in here, outside of
avoiding daylight.”
He nodded.
“Let’s go see what the world’s been up
to.”
She jumped up, excited,
entered her code and pressed her thumb onto the hologram as it appeared.
Elizabeth’s voice sounded through the speakers, “Good evening, Daniella.
I hope you slept well.”
“Who’s that?” he asked, surprised.
“The vampire who made me.
Wait’ll
you see this.”
He followed her into
the observation room.
He looked at
the cameras with her, impressed, his mind processing and grasping their
purpose.
“You’ve gone to a lot of effort here.
Did you do all this or did someone do it
for you?”
She pointed to herself
and went to the computer to enter his information and to grant him access.
He watched the monitors with great
interest.
As she went to enter the
code, she stopped.
She had never
trusted anyone with access to her sleeping quarters since Elizabeth.
She knew she could trust her but… she
looked at him, watched him touch the screens to feel how smooth they were, and
debated whether or not she should wait to show him everything.
“I can’t get over how new everything feels.
I can’t believe you’ve been feeling
these things the entire time I’ve known you.
You always look so calm,” he said,
touching the screens and shaking his head in disbelief.
“You get used to it,” she said, still staring at the
computer.
Enter the code, she told
herself.
What are you waiting
for?
Don’t be so fucking jaded.
“This is very cool. I’m impressed. What if someone broke
in while you… sorry, while
we...
were sleeping?”
He turned to her.
She closed the screen and left the
system as it was. He didn’t know about her inner struggle or that she’d decided
against granting him access. He would have teased her about being too careful
and having courage, again, she thought. Best to keep quiet and make her own
decision.She
could always add him
later.
“When daylight comes I am… sorry…
we
are extremely
vulnerable. If someone were to break in we would not be able to protect
ourselves, I don’t think.”
“What do you mean, ‘you don’t think’?” he asked.
“That hasn’t happened to me…so I don’t know. I’ve heard
stories, rumors. People have been dragged into the sun to their deaths.
I saw it happen once when I was just
turned. Anyway, it’s simply not worth the risk.”
He walked to her, smoothed the frown crease away with his
finger, and kissed her. She smiled and leaned into him. “Who trained you?” he
asked.
“The woman who made me.”
She felt a pang of guilt as she
remembered Elizabeth’s intuition, and changed the subject. “Would you please
close that door?” she asked, indicating the one to The Safe.
As he turned away from her to close it,
she hurriedly punched in the code 0-4-0-8-1-7-8-4 before he turned back.
Just as he did, the door opened to the
loft and a host of new sights distracted his attention.
In the state he was in, he could not
have noticed her reticence to allow him full access.
Inside the loft, he watched the painting auto-close
behind them.
“We were standing
right in front of this at the party.”
“I know,” she grinned.
He laughed with her and grabbed her by
the waist like he did the night they made love at the bar, only this time they
were the same.
He pressed her body
to his, smiling, and he looked so sexy to her that she felt her whole body open
to him.
He bent down and took her
lips in his, their lips molding onto each other like sensual clay. She felt his
arms, and the pressure of him on her.
He pulled away and said, his eyes sexy and aroused, “You
were made by another woman?” She nodded. “That’s very progressive of you.
And super fucking hot.”
She laughed and pushed playfully but he
held on to her, smiling down on her glowing face. “When did this happen?”
She said quietly, “1812.”
His eyebrows shot up and his mind twisted around the
numbers.
“Wow. Happy 200
th
Birthday.”
“Thank you very much. Best birthday present ever.”
Electricity coursed through her body as he kissed her harder. He picked her up
and threw her on the decoy bed.
She
let out a yell of surprise and smiled at him, lying on her back as she rested
on bent elbows. “Now it’s you who’s looking at me like a sheep,” she purred and
spread her legs open with an inviting look on her face. With his new speed he
was on her, his mouth hungrily working hers and bruising it, his hips pressing
against hers. He moaned, her tongue in his mouth and his fangs sharpened into
points and before she knew to stop him, he had bitten her tongue and was
sucking her blood through it.
“No!”
She
shoved him violently with all of her strength off of her and said again purely
out of instinct, “No!” Panting, confused and ravenous, he landed on his ass ten
feet away with a thud. She backed away toward the kitchen, keeping him in front
of her at all times as she said in a low soothing voice. “You’re hungry. I
should have known.
I’m sorry,” she
said.
He understood. He cleared his throat as he cleared his
mind - a human habit.
He looked
embarrassed. “How’s your tongue?” he asked awkwardly. She stopped walking. “I’m
sorry.”
“It’s already healed. I’m fine. Don’t worry about
it.
It’s just… don’t do that
again.”
“I’m sorry.
This is all really new to me. I don’t know why I did that.” He looked so
young as he apologized to her. In a way, living had to be learned all over
again.
She was blessed she’d had
such a patient teacher and promised herself to be the same for him.
She sat down
on the couch and motioned for him to join.
He did, sitting beside her as she tucked her feet underneath her,
contemplating.
“I’m trying to think
of where to begin.”
He nodded and relaxed, turned to face her, one leg on the
couch between them, bent, the other hanging off the side.
He threw his arm over the back of the
couch to act casual, and waited.
His patience centered her and she was glad for it.
“Well, let’s start with what just happened.
I didn’t get upset because I feared
death. We can’t be killed by being sucked dry like humans can.
We can, however, be incapacitated and
extremely vulnerable.
Blood is the
fuel that drives us and though we cannot die, without it we become
paralyzed.
My reaction just now was
based on instinct alone because in truth, you can’t kill me when you’re this
new.
You wouldn’t be able to
overpower me.” He raised his eyebrows in a playful challenge and she smiled at
his pride.
“No, sorry.
Years add strength and since you are a
man, in time, you will overpower my strength.
But since you are new, just turned,
well, the clock needs to tick some more. I’m stronger, especially when you
haven’t fed.”
“So how else can I be killed?
I know about the sun. I felt that this
morning when I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
How ‘bout a stake?”
“Through the heart? No, that’s a fairy tale.
We can pull it out. Our hearts will
repair in minutes or seconds, depending on our age.
When I say age…”
“You mean vampire age,” he finished.
“Exactly. I got staked through the heart once.
Hurt like hell, but I pulled it out and
chucked it to the side.” She smiled, her eyes twinkling at the memory. “You should
have seen their faces.”
He sat up straighter, his eyes darkening.
“Someone tried to kill you?” His desire
to protect her moved her deeply and she nodded, watching his anger grow, with
interest.
Nice.
“It was a small town, and a long time ago.
They were trying to protect their
village. A story for another time.” She leaned forward and kissed him
lightly.
He sat back again, waiting
for more.
“What about cutting off the head?”
“It grows back.”
“It grows back
?!!
”
“I mean the two stay animated, torso and head. When the
head is put back on the neck - or the neck on the shoulders - the strands of
flesh, vein and bone connect and heal, as if it never happened.”
“Holy shit!”
“Yeah.
It’s
pretty awesome.” She grinned.
“Wait, that happened to you, too?” he asked, disbelief
all over his face at the visual.
“No
no
no
.
I saw it happen though.
It was
pretty incredible. But there is one thing that can kill us, other than the sun.
Fire.
Fire is deadly to vampires.
The sun is, we now know, essentially a big ball of fire.” She repeated then the
same words Elizabeth had used to explain it to her so long ago; “You cannot
heal ash.” She was lost in the memory for a moment, thinking of that first
night.
Where was Elizabeth now, she
wondered.
He nodded, processing all the new
information.
Dani remembered
another point and added, “And if we get burned it doesn’t heal right away.
It will heal, but it will take much
longer than it takes even a human to heal.”
“How old were you… when you were turned?” he asked.
She relaxed back onto her heels and rested against the
couch as her thoughts went back in time. “I was twenty eight.
I lived with my father in London.”
“In 1812.
It
must have been cool to have lived back then.”
“One of the perks of living forever is all of the changes
you get to see.” Her eyes were distant, lost in the memory again before she
said,
“I was very innocent back then.”
“I bet you were beautiful.” He liked how she smiled at
him when he said that.
When she spoke next, he caught a glimpse of what she must
have looked like as a girl because her manner changed.
She seemed shy as she recalled, “We were
very poor. I wasn’t able to wear gowns that were in season, or hire the appropriate
servants… or have transportation, other than my feet.
Eventually we didn’t even have a roof
over our heads to call home.
Things
were very different for me then, and at that time, status and appearance meant
almost more than they do now.
I got
by on self-respect. People can’t take that away from you.”